nation, a third part' of the angelic fig trees on that once fruitful hill, all barren. The leaves of intellect were still verdant on their branches; but the vital sap of integrity was dried up within. The trees were not only barren, but seemed also to shake their empty branches in scorn of his disappointment. Then went forth the judicial sentence, 'Cut them down; why cumber they the ground?' And there was no intercession for them-no mediator between God and rebel angels. The axe was laid to the root of these trees at once; and they fell-and great was their fall and as they fell-so they lie, bound in bundles, by chains of darkness, for burning.

"This awful catastrophe was soon followed by the sudden and entire barrenness of the human fig trees in the earthly quarter of the great vineyard. They too, at first, had their fruit unto holiness, and their end promised to be everlasting life-for ministering spirits from the throne sang around them like the birds of Paradise, and God pronounced their first fruits 'very

good.' But soon the crooked serpent of Tophet coiled himself around their trunk and branches, and they became barren. Then went forth from the throne the sentence, 'Cut them down :' and they would have been cut down; but the Angel of the Covenant pleaded for them, and pledged himself to restore them to fruitfulness. Thus, to His intercession, the parent trees owed their escape from the axe of justice; and to Him we are all indebted for our place and privileges in the vineyard of Jehovah. I feel this in my own case; and therefore spared the barren fig tree, as an emblem of myself."

66

The friends of Sheshbazzar felt reproved and instructed at the same time. "If you, father," they said, owe so much to the intercession of the Angel of the Covenant, how much more do we owe!" My children," said the old man, "I would not lessen your sense of obligation: your debt is not less, and mine is more, than you suppose. But let us both, henceforth, study to bear more fruit unto the glory of God, that we may not be cut down as cumberers of the

ground for if God spared not the angels who kept not their first estate, He will not spare those who remain barren in the vineyard of the Covenant."

No. VI.

DEVELOPMENTS BY DEPENDANCE.

Ir is but too common to think oftener and more deeply of what God expects from us, than of what we expect from him. He certainly expects and demands much from us, although nothing unreasonable: but, how much do we also expect from both His grace and providence! Has God nothing to do-nothing to give-nothing to bear, on our account? True, we have much to do and endure for his sake; and it is not wrong to feel this, nor to say this; so long as we do not count our duties too many, nor our trials too severe but still, we must not forget what God has to do and endure for our sake. Why, there is not one command binding upon us, that does not bind God to do more for us than he demands from us. If He exact obedience, he pledges

himself to give both the inclination and the ability to obey. If He enforce submission, he binds himself to give sufficient grace for it, and to bring good out of the evils which call for patience and resignation. In regard to whatever God says, "Do this in remembrance of me," he actually engages, by implication and oath, to remember us, more frequently, and more feelingly, than we can remember him.

It becomes us, therefore, to look quite as much at what we need, and at what we expect, and at what we desire from God, as at what God expects and exacts from us. It is all very right to say, when the circle of duty opens upon us, vividly, in all its vastness, "Thy Law is exceeding broad:" so it is; but it is not broader than His glorious Gospel! The promises of His grace are quite as many and as great, as the precepts of His law. The round of duty is not wider, nor more regular, than the range of gracious privileges and eternal prospects. So also in regard to trials. It is all very well to remember, that "many are the afflictions of the righteous:"